The Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge

Last week I spent an afternoon at the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge. It was my first visit to the 3,621 acre facility. It was also nice, considering it was the last day of January, that I could hike around in a short sleeve shirt and get familiar with part of the 20 miles of hiking trails. I will definitely have to plan another visit so I can explore some more. The image below was taken on the marsh boardwalk.

Hamilton Pool and the Texas Capital!

Many times I will take a detour for a photo shoot on my way to or from an art show. Such was the case back in April when I drove to San Antonio, Texas for the Fiesta Art Fair. I left home a day early and gave myself plenty of time to make it to the Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve by mid afternoon. Hamilton Pool is a swimming hole and waterfall about 30 miles southwest of Austin, Texas. Years ago I photographed the preserve with film, a tough scene to shoot when half is in deep shade and half is in full sunlight. However, it is a perfect subject for digital and todays HDR techniques.

 Hamilton Pool

 After entering the preserve you have a 1/4 mile hike to get to the swimming hole and falls. Once I reached my destination, I shot many different compositions, but this is one of my favorites. However, I didn't give myself a lot of extra time to enjoy the area because I still planned to drive back to Austin and photograph the Texas State Capital at sunset. Fortunately, I made it to Austin with enough time for some quick Mexican food at Chuy's before heading on to the capital building.

 The Texas State Capital

On my first visit to the capital a few years ago, I approached the building from the south side and completely missed seeing the underground extension that was added in 1993. Well, better late than never. Part of that area makes a great foreground for pictures of the Capital just after sunset. After darkness set in and I felt I had shot some good images, I drove the rest of the way to San Antonio. The following day I set up my booth in preparation for the art festival. Just across the street from the show is San Antonio's Central Library. It has some very interesting architecture and is painted what many call "Enchilada Red". After the artist's dinner on Saturday night I figured I might as well  take advantage of this and spend the rest of the evening shooting the Library. I was a little limited on what parts of the building I could shoot because they were doing some construction, but did get several images that I really like. Hopefully, I will get a chance next year to photograph the rest of the library.

San Antonio Central Library

Watch Where You Step!

House Full of Jars

Saturday night I was watching TV and came across "Billy the Exterminator". In this episode his job was to remove a 5' rattlesnake from a storage shed. This shed was full of old carpet and a lot of other junk. Billy almost got bit by the snake! Sunday, while driving home from Midland, Texas, I stopped at this old house to get some photos. To reach this room in the photo, I had to climb through a room that must have had 5 or 6 deteriorated mattresses piled up on the floor. Guess what I was thinking about? I did keep telling myself that it was 34 degrees and the snakes won't be out. Warm weather would have had me as jumpy as a grasshopper. This house is about 15 miles from Sweetwater, Texas, home of the world's largest "Rattlesnake Roundup" each year.

Safetly back home!

Well, I made it back home last night with quite a few new images. Usually I know immediately which images are the best but sometimes months or even years later I review the work and come up with a few more winners. Sometimes new processing skills or just a little different vision than I initially had will cause me to see the work a little differently at a later date. Only time will tell.

Blue Swallow Motel

This first image was taken in Tucumcari, New Mexico. We decided Thursday to drive there in order to shoot some of the old signs and Motels around sunset. Route 66 goes right through Tucumcari and many of the original businesses are still there and many are still open. About 6:00 pm it was starting to get dark but it seemed that many places did not have their lights on. Several Motels we wanted to shoot were dark. The window of time to get the light I wanted is short, so I ran into the Palamino Motel and asked if the lights were going to be turned on. I was told they weren't working and he was trying to get them fixed. I took some quick shots without the lights and headed to the Blue Swallow. No lights here either. I ran in and asked about the lights. I was told that if you don't stay at the Motel you must make a donation to get the lights turned on. Sure enough there is a jar on the counter that says NEON. I make the comment that I would go broke if I had to pay everytime I took a picture, but I take out all the ones I have in my wallet and put them in the jar. Four bucks! I think that got me about 4 minutes. The lights came on and I set up in the spot that I had already determined to be where I wanted to set my tripod. I composed the image and focused then shot a series of exposures. The next thing I know, the Blue Swallow and the colorful thing on the ground by the mail box is turned off. The "T" on Motel wasn't working either. Fortunately I got the shot I wanted and a little Photoshop magic turned the "T" back on.

Petrified Wood Station

This second location was found Tuesday right after we left Gary's house in Grand Prairie. We were going to drive north and planned to end up in El Reno, Oklahoma. This took us through Decatur, Texas which is about a 45 minute drive from his house. We took a detour which would lead us to the town square. Before we got there I spotted the Petrified Wood Station and said "Stop the Car". We got out and took some photographs but we knew we needed to come back some other day at a time when the light was better. High noon is almost never the best time to photograph anything. After driving quite a distance from Tucumcari on Friday we realized we could make it to Decatur about 5:30pm. We arrive back at the PWS on schedule. The restaurant next door is closed so it has no cars parked in front of it. That's a good thing, but there are not any lights on. At 5:55 still no lights. Suns down and we are running out of light. I have been telling Gary that maybe they are on a timer and come on at 6:00pm. He thinks I'm dreaming. He is putting his tripod back in the car at 5:56 when the small Texas Plaza sign lights up. I'm thinking...YYYYYYYYes!!!!!!! Four minutes later the Texaco, the pumps, and the PWF sign come on. Time to shoot. I have hardly taken a set of exposures when off go the lights again. About five minutes later they come on again for a few minutes and then go back off. We have seen nobody around this place but I wonder if somebody is at the light switch in one of these buildings and is laughing at the torture he is putting us through. A few minutes later the two windows on either side of the door come on plus some over head lights in the carport. I had forgot they were there. Another minute later the rest of the lights come on and stay on until we leave. I have time to shoot more exposures with all the lights on. I also shot the station from the other side. I like that version too, but have not yet processed it. You would be surprised how much time I spent on this one. Photomatix doesn't always blend everything together perfectly and you have to fix it manually somehow. I'm happy with the way it looks. Hope you like it too.
More images from the trip will be coming.
Clark

Update from the Econo Lodge in Shamrock, Texas!

Magnolia Station

Here it is the third day of my road trip. So far it has been fairly successful. I took this last night in Shamrock, Texas. We arrived here about 3:30pm with it about 64 degrees. By the time I took this it was 38 degrees. This morning it was down to 13 degrees. That may explain why I am taking a warm break in the motel room and posting to my blog. This next image was also taken in Shamrock. I will post some more images later but right now Gary is sitting here telling me we need to get back on the road.

See you later.

Clark

Conoco Tower

Black and white or color or both?

The Plaza and Corner Pocket in Black and White

I converted this image to black and white a few days ago. The color version was posted on Jan 4. I like the bright colors of the original version but I also like this version. Some images work both ways while others only work in either black and white or color.
Clark

Off to the Theater again! Or is it Theatre?

Cinemark Theatre

I guess since I have photographed a couple of theaters lately that my eye has gotten into "Theater Mode". The Cinemark is out in Plano, Texas. I noticed it as I drove down 75 last week so I figured I would head over there some evening when it looked like we would have some nice light. Although this theater is not that old it does look similar to some of the ones built in the 40's or 50's. The next two images were taken last night. The Uptown Theater in Grand Prairie was opened in 1950. More info about it here http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/home.htm

Sold Out

Uptown Theater

All of these images were created the same way as some of the previous theater posts by using a combination of multiple exposures. The Uptown images were only 3 exposures where 5 were used on the Cinimark image. I also had to manually combine the SOLD OUT part of the Marquee in Photoshop.
Next week another photographer(Gary Kelly) and myself are going to spend several days in Oklahoma and Texas photographing parts of Route 66. Should be fun and should provide me with some interesting images.
Clark